Thomas S. Saras
Neel Nanda
Maria Saras-Voutsinas
Rosemary Sadler
Ricky Castellvi
Jonathan Annobil
Pooyan Tabatabaei
Nisanta Dun
Lydia Sun
Leila Monteiro Lins
Jonathan Annobil
Mohammed Bagher Samimi
Ali Mahmoud
Mohammad Tajdolati
GhulamRasool
Anfisa Lyasota
Ranjit Wicks
Sandie De Freitas
Norman Hart
Kathy L. L. Li
Wais Popalzai
Teshome Woldramanuel
Khalid Magen
Mooka Tamil
Bobby Wang
Maria Swietoizacki
Elizabeth Muzalc
Anastasio Chatzitheophanous
Mikr Kolososki
Joe Volpe
Susana Donan
S. Krishnalingan
Khalid Menan
Nagamany Longediably
Hermi Garcia
Mila Garcia
MawrinFwrah
Eugenia Boukchwou
Vanessa Wheatle
Elsayed Nashr
MizhardBagant
Cefar Bangu
GezahegnMekonnenDemissie
SaadAlsafar
Rui Yang
HaiTien Lin
Logan Longarigham
KumananThnambi
Nishrite Don
ErnestoDonan
Isa Melo
ThavapalanKathiravelu
Yuri Natcetoi
John Saraidaris
Said Henry
Lui Queano
Elizabeth Murok
S. Krinalingam
Inga Cernei
Kumayan Thambi
Robin Beckosian
Khalid Magnam
Hannan Mamun
Nobodi News
Aysegul Kalkan
Ersoy Kalkan
Nishanta Don
Ali Mahboub
Mulugeta Zergaber
Denis Brito
Stensont A
Geetha Nangarajh
Syed Irbal
Mike Kolosowski
Boddy Wang
Anastasios Chatzitheofanous
MuhacumadNaeemUl Islam
Foe Jole
Nishantha Dion
ThanapalanKathivarelu
DimitrisVohaitis
DarilBrar
Ahmad Rostamijam
LalitThakar
Lawrence Joseph
Ronny Yason
Khuvan Aftab
Abdul Azeem
Qazi AFRASIAB
Nawrin Farah
S Krishnalingam
Sonny Mir
Shaiful Horn
Bobby Wang
Ahmad Hotaki
Thomas Galgor
S. Sivamohan
Kathy Geraklis
Athanasios Kourtesis
Kumanan Thambi
Tamil Muraka
Solomon Areinu
Bety Glothai
Salah Allam
Stena Allam
- Welcome Remarks by the chair.
- A call to order by the chair
- Agenda of the day
- Minutes of the previous meeting
- Presentation by Adam Pham, Conservative Party Candidate for Parkdale-High Park
- Report of the President/Discussions
- New Members/New Business
- Adjournment
Welcome Remarks by the Chair:
Dr. Tajdolati chaired the meeting and declared the meeting open. Pooyan Tabatabaei moved a motion to approve the agenda. Dimitris Vohaitis seconded it. The motion was carried.
Minutes of the previous meeting:
Everyone received the minutes of the last meeting by email. Joe Volpe moved a motion to approve the minutes of the previous monthly meeting and Ali Mahmoud seconded it. The motion was carried.
President’s Report/Discussions:
- Please ensure that you are reading the minutes, especially if you are unable to attend the meeting. There is important information being discussed about the various projects going on or starting in the near future.
Local Journalism Initiative:
- Mr. Saras will have the application for the local journalism initiative posted to our website by next week. Once submitted, the application will go through a committee to be approved.
- In order to participate in this project, members must hire a journalist who has finished the school of journalism or is in the process of doing so. Each week this Journalist will prepare numerous articles covering local news including politics and community events and/or issues pertaining to the remote community being served. Copy of all his articles should be submitted to the office of the organization as they will be posted also in our web sides.
- This is a project aimed at reaching remote areas with communities which do not have their own publications. Members will be supplied with pre paid Canada Post boxes in order to send out the materials prepared. Publications to qualify for this program must have an office from where they are working on the publications.
- Publications with less than 50% of Canadian Content not qualify for the program.
- Publications that are copy and paste articles from the various web sites are not acceptable to join the program.
- If the new employ doesn’t have the use of a computer to complete their job, the organization will help to accommodate those individuals. This will be agreed upon between Mr. Saras and the publication employing a new journalist, as due to circumstances the organization can supply if necessary a computer to help the young person.
Internship Program:
- The president reminded members of the ongoing internship program which started in January 2019. Same as the local journalism initiative, publications wishing to hire an intern must have an office to work from. The program covers $15/hr and the rest of the compensation is covered by the publication hiring the intern. In order to receive the pay, the signed agreement must be followed and an invoice should be sent to Mr. Saras following each month or agreed upon term.
- With school having begun again there are more opportunities to attain an intern for those members who have been waiting to find an intern who speaks the language of their publication. Members wishing to find an intern to help them should reach out to executive managing director, Maria Saras-Voutsinas.
Revenue Canada Tax Credits
- The last program that the president brought to the members attention was the money that will be received at the end of the year to those who apply through Revenue Canada. Every publication with at least 2 employees has the right to be a part of this program. This program excludes any family members that may be working at your publication.
- Members will have to deal directly with revenue Canada. This means calling Revenue Canada and identifying yourself to be a part of the media, asking them to give you a number as well as the application for you to complete. You should apply for each person who works for you, whether they are full time or part time. It is important that members act on this as soon as possible.
Additional Announcements:
- On Wednesday September 11, Mr. Saras will be going to Ottawa in order to speak about these projects and secure members of the staff of the ministry will come to speak to our members about the details of the project and how to apply for funding.
- The president also noted that publications which do not currently have a website will be provided assistance in attaining a website once an agreement is signed in the near future.
- He also explained that online publications that already have a working website are eligible to receive $27,000 every second year. This Is only available to those who do not already receive any grants for their print publication.
- Mr. Saras has been working very hard to make these benefits available to the members so he reminded members that it is very important that they apply to receive these benefits.
Speaker: Adam Pham, Conservative Party Candidate for Parkdale-High Park
With the upcoming election, Adam Pham, Conservative Party Candidate for Parkdale-High Park made a presentation to the members. Born in Vietnam in 1966, during the time of the Vietnam war and completed his Bachelors degree in Moscow and his PhD in Russia. He has lived in five countries throughout his life, Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia, Poland and now Canada to which he immigrated to in 2001. For him the main reason to run is to give back to this beautiful country which gave him two important things peace and freedom, both which were not something that were possible in his home country.
His main priorities if elected are to make life safe and affordable. He stated that “We prefer to make money and spend money not to borrow money and spend money”. When asked what will be done about education and healthcare, Mr.Pham responded saying that “we will increase funding for healthcare and education by 3% per year”. He stated that “we need an open market in order to spend more”. When asked about his position about same-sex marriage he said that we are all included and it is a human right to be able to marry whomever you choose to. Mr. Pham said that he wants to make clear that the conservative party is not anti-immigrant whatsoever. In his own opinion we need a larger population. The system must be fair and compassionate. He hopes that everyone will vote in the upcoming election regardless of which party they associate themselves with.
New Members/ New Business:
New member from Parvasi media, Saini Rajinder expressed gratitude for becoming a part of the organization and now attending the monthly meetings.
Joe Volpe spoke in regards to a request for proposals made by the CRTC. He explained that 4 applicants responded, but regardless of their proposals for providing ethnic news, the CRTC gave the licence to Rogers/Omni without providing an explanation. In response, two of the applicants immediately filed to federal court. Corriere Canadese sent a letter to every member of cabinet voicing how unfair and wrong this decision is. A copy of this letter can be attained through Joe Volpe and will be passed on through Maria. In addition, more information on the topic can be found through Corriere Canadese as their daily publication has been following the decisions of the CRTC and reporting updates regularly.
Karim Mirshahi announced that on Saturday, September 21, 2019 Waterfront Magazines 6th annual post-TIFF event and the First annual “Film for Peace” Festival will take place in Toronto at Artscape. For more information, contact Karim at info@waterfront-magazine.com.
Sean Pickard made an announcement about an annual fundraiser, “An Evening Under the Stars”, being held on September 28. Ticket prices are $60 for a single ticket and $90 for Couples. Tickets can be purchased online at www.connect4life.ca
Sean Pickard also introduced a new member from Voices4Ability Radio to the organization, Robert Steeves.
Adjournment:
Dimitris Vohaitis moved a motion to adjourn the meeting and Mr.Ahmed Hotaki seconded it. The motion was carried. The Chair, Dr. Mohammad Tajdolati adjourned the meeting at 9 pm. The next monthly meeting will take place on Monday, October 21, 2019 at committee room N# 2 at the Toronto City Hall.
